Backup and restore

Data backup and recovery is one of the main mechanisms for ensuring data availability and integrity. It protects data from loss in the event of failures, accidents, or malicious actions.

The IIoT Platform follows a unified backup and recovery policy that provides:

• automatic creation of backups for all data types and devices according to a defined schedule;
• procedures for restoring data from those backups.

Data backup options

The platform supports three backup methods, each trading off speed, storage footprint, and recovery time.

Full backup

Creates a complete copy of all data. It requires more time and space, but provides fast recovery.

tar -czvf backup_full.tar.gz /path/to/data

Incremental backup

Copies only the data that has changed since the last backup. It requires less time and space, but recovery may be slower.

rsync -av --compare-dest=/path/to/last_backup /path/to/data /path/to/incremental_backup

Differential backup

Copies all data that has changed since the last full backup. This is a compromise between full and incremental backups.

rsync -av --compare-dest=/path/to/full_backup /path/to/data /path/to/differential_backup

Backup strategy

The platform adopts a backup strategy built on the following principles.

Rule 3-2-1

• 3 copies of data: the original data plus two backups.
• 2 media types: a hard disk and cloud storage, for instance.
• 1 off-site copy: in the cloud or on a remote server.

Backup frequency

• Define the backup frequency based on data criticality (for example, daily or weekly).

Backup validation

• Regularly check backups for integrity and recoverability.
• The platform validates backups automatically on a defined schedule.
• The platform notifies the responsible staff of each backup’s status automatically.

In practice, a combination of these methods works best: schedule regular full backups, fill the gaps with incremental or differential backups to limit time and storage costs, keep copies on at least two media types with one off-site, and rely on automated validation and notifications so any problem is caught early. This approach keeps recovery fast while ensuring data remains available and intact.